Officers Help Residents Escape from Quarantine, Evidence of Weak Supervision
While the Covid-19 pandemic has not yet ended, violations of quarantine obligations have occurred again. This time, Instagram celebrities Rachel Vennya and Salim Nauderer escaped from quarantine after coming from the United States, allegedly with the help of a member of the TNI. This case not only violates the law and shows the government's negligence in enforcing quarantine rules, but also endangers public health.
PRESS RELEASE
Officers Help Residents Escape from Quarantine, Evidence of Weak Supervision
While the Covid-19 pandemic has not yet ended, violations of quarantine obligations have occurred again. This time, Instagram celebrities Rachel Vennya and Salim Nauderer escaped from quarantine after coming from the United States, allegedly with the help of a member of the TNI. This case not only violates the law and shows the government's negligence in enforcing quarantine rules, but also endangers public health.
Health quarantine is mandatory for every individual traveling from abroad to mitigate the risk of virus transmission (Health Quarantine Law, 2018; WHO, 2021; Chen, et. al, 2021; ECDC EASA, 2021). Even though there are many rules regarding quarantine, violations still occur. In Rachel and Salim's case, there were at least three violations. Rules that were ignored, namely the alleged involvement of the TNI, the location of the quarantine, as well as the duration of the quarantine which was not in accordance with procedures.
Alleged kthe involvement of a member of the TNI Soekarno Hatta Airport security in helping Rachel and Salim already violating the duties of the TNI which is responsible for monitoring, controlling and evaluating the implementation of quarantine. Rachel and Salim should also quarantine at their own expense, not at the government-owned Pademangan Athlete's Village. This facility is aimed at Indonesian migrant workers, students or students taking education or study assignments from abroad and also government officials returning after official trips. This corresponds to SE Addendum Number 8/2021.
Apart from that, they only underwent quarantine at the Pademangan Athlete's House for 3 x 24 hours. This doesn't match SE Covid 19 Task Force Number 18/2021 which sets a quarantine time of 8 x 24 hours. Starting October 14 2021, regulations will apply in accordance with Circular No. 20 of 2021 where the quarantine period after travel is 5×24 hours.
However, this is not the first time some residents have escaped quarantine obligations. Last April, 6 Indonesian citizens from India bribed airport officials Rp. 6,500,000 to escape quarantine. In the same month, a number of foreigners were found wandering around even though they were undergoing quarantine in an apartment in Jakarta.
Weak monitoring systems and the presence of parties acting fraudulently trigger people, like Rachel, to escape quarantine arrangements. This also shows that the Indonesian government is still not firm in implementing the rules in the field and the songs are selective in enforcing the rules.
In fact, health quarantine according to procedures is important to prevent the entry of the virus that causes Covid-19 and other new variants. According to the Health Quarantine Law no. 6/2018, quarantine is used to prevent the spread of new variants/diseases (in this case Covid19) or exacerbate the spread of existing diseases and cause a health emergency or muddy the atmosphere. Imposing quarantine after returning from abroad also prevents transmission of the virus from undetected cases (cases false negative or transmission occurring during flights) among cross-border travelers (ECDC EASA, 2021; Christidis and Christodoulou, 2020).
The European Center Disease Control or ECDC (2021) concluded that quarantine was 51.3% effective if carried out for 7 days, 68.8% for 10 days and 78.0% if carried out for a full 14 days. This means that the shorter the quarantine period, the smaller its effectiveness in preventing the rate of disease transmission, including Covid-19.
Thus, the government must impose strict sanctions to have a deterrent effect, both for the perpetrators and officers who misuse the quarantine process. The government also needs to improve monitoring and evaluation both in terms of regulations and implementation in the field as well as supervision of international travelers.
Supervision must also be carried out on officers who are responsible for monitoring, controlling and evaluating the quarantine. Moreover, since October 14 2021, Bali has opened its international flights. So, the rules in the field must be implemented strictly. If not, the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia could get worse again.
Reference:
Chen Z, Yu M, Wang Y, Zhou L. 2021. The effect of the synchronized multi-dimensional policies on imported COVID-19 curtailment in China. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0252224. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0252224
Christidis, Panayotis and Christodoulou, Aris. 2020. The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness. Int. J Environ. Res. Public Health. 17, 33-56;
European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (ECDC EASA). 2020. Guidelines for COVID-19 testing and quarantine of air travelers Addendum to the Aviation Health Safety Protocol. 2 December 2020.
World Health Organization (WHO). 2021. Technical considerations for implementing a risk-based approach to international travel in the context of COVID-19 Interim guidance Annex to Policy considerations for implementing a risk-based approach to international travel in the context of COVID-19.
